The site says that Lee went to the emergency room after feeling “excruciating neck pain” and weakness in her arm. A few days later, her condition worsened until finally, Dr. Hooman M. Melamed performed a multi-level laminectomy on Tuesday (April 17).

“It was not an infection, it was a type of a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – it’s a type of a cancer,” the spine surgeon at Cedar Sinai Marina Del Rey Hospital told People. “We’re getting an oncologist involved and we have to figure out what the next steps are as far as chemotherapy or radiation or more spine surgery. Depending on the tumor type, depending on the sensitivity of the tumor – it just depends the type but I feel more than yes, she will undergo chemotherapy or radiation.”

Melamed specified that Miller's condition is a “preliminary diagnosis pending pathology and oncology results.” He added that Miller would have died if she hadn't been treated, but that she's slowly feeling better.

“She’s made some recovery in 24 hours, which is better than no recovery,” he said. “Nobody wants to end up thinking they’re going to be paralyzed for the rest of their life. That’s a reality that’s facing all of these patients going into it. All you can do is pray and, as a surgeon, you maximize everything you can for the spinal cord to recover itself. I am hopeful.”

Still, Melamed added that doctors aren't sure which stage the cancer is, and that Miller is certainly not "out of the woods."